Your right to public information is much more restricted than it used to be in Texas. And now, your right to participate and dissent in the public arena is in peril. We'll explain how, and what's being done about it. But first, know this:

Your friendly neighborhood news media outlets and a few friendly lawmakers fight these battles, not just for our own sakes. Sure, overcoming obstacles to fact-gathering is a cost of business we like to reduce. But if we, who have the knowhow and resources to fight back, are butting our heads against walls of intimidation built by government officials, businesses and special interests, what happens when it's you or your neighbor? What happens when an authority figure says no to a private citizen of modest means who is predisposed by his or her upbringing not to question authority?

Now that it's established why this is your fight, here's what's happening in the current session of the Texas Legislature, good and bad, on the issue of transparency and free speech. Note that the sponsors of pro-transparency legislation are a mix of "R" and "D." Transparency is a nonpartisan principle:

Your tax dollars at work, how?

Identical bills by Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, and Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, (HB 2191 and SB 943) would restore your right to know what your state and local government entities spend when they contract with the private sector. You'd think this would be the most basic of information to which you'd be entitled — your tax dollars presumably at work. But a wrongheaded Texas Supreme Court ruling in 2015 cut off that access when Boeing asserted that disclosure of its lease of a former air base in San Antonio would put it at a competitive disadvantage.

State Sen. Kirk Watson and Rep, Giovanni Capriglione, right, push for open government legislation at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017. Media attorney Laura Prather is at left.(Photo: John C. Moritz)

Frankly, you shouldn't have to care if it did. That should have been Boeing's problem, not yours. It should be just an acknowledged risk of doing business with a local government. The recipe for Dr Pepper is an example of legitimately protected information. How much rent Boeing pays for public-owned property is not.

Citing the Boeing exception has become routine for companies. Perhaps the most well-known egregious example was when the city of McAllen was allowed to withhold how much it paid entertainer Enrique Iglesias for a public performance.

If you're wondering why the gap between 2015 and a legislative response in 2019, it's because Watson and Capriglione tried in 2017 and were defeated by the business lobby. In the meantime, the public has had more time to become accustomed to the yoke put on it by the Boeing ruling. Your outrage should be hot and fresh, as if the ruling were issued yesterday.

Protecting you from Goliath

Let's say you oppose what a big corporation is doing in your community. Let's say you speak out at public meetings and organize Citizens Against That Big Corporation. Corporations know how to make you wish you didn't — by filing nuisance lawsuits you can't afford to fight. Those are called SLAPP suits, for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. There's a law against them, the Texas Citizen Participation Act, authored in 2011 by Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi. It has been effective. It's generous in how it kicks meritless lawsuits out of court quickly and makes the deep-pocketed aggressors pay their victims' legal fees.

But now it's in peril. Bills filed by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, (HB 2730 and SB 2162) would allow a SLAPP suit filer to string the other side along until three days before a hearing, then bail out without penalty. The defendant would be stuck with his or her legal expenses. The whole point of the anti-SLAPP law was to protect well-meaning citizens from being ruined financially in legal battles they can't afford. Shame on Leach and Paxton.

Why birthdays shouldn't be secret

Hunter has filed a bill (HB 1655) to clarify that birth dates are public record. A court ruling allowed public servants' birth dates to be withheld. You can't accurately identify an individual by name alone. A birth date can help ensure that a city council candidate or firefighter applicant isn't the person by the same name who did time for arson. Identifying the correct individual isn't just important to news reporters.

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State Rep. Todd Hunter speaks about government transparency during the Let the Sun Shine event on Thursday, May 17, 2018, at Texas A&amp;M University-Corpus Christi.(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)

Hunter also filed a bill (HB 1700) to make it easier for the public to obtain information public officials have stored or disseminated via their personal devices such as cellphones. An example would be a text dialogue between a City Council member and an audience member during a public meeting. The bill clarifies the public official's responsibilities in maintaining and providing the information and includes criminal penalties for failure to do so.

The bills by Watson, Capriglione and Hunter put them at odds with powerful special interests. Give them the gratitude and support they deserve, give Leach and Paxton the repudiation they deserve and let your representatives know that these bills are important to you.